As one can ascertain, there are many transducer which are employed for various measurements. A very popular type of transducer is the pressure transducer or pressure sensor. Such devices measure pressure in a given environment, other devices such as temperature sensors measure temperature, current probes measure current as well as other devices such as tachometers to measure speed of rotation and, as one can ascertain, many other so called transducers.
In many applications, a plurality of different transducers are used which may monitor conditions of one particular item or many items. For example, in a vehicle, one may monitor oil pressure, the rotational speed, the current drain from the battery, the temperature of the passenger compartment or of the engine. Thus, as one can ascertain, there are many systems which utilize many different types of transducers for many different applications. In order to monitor such transducers, one requires different apparatus for each device. For example, each device may have a different output voltage, may produce a different signal and have other requirements which differ from device to device.
In order to accommodate each of these devices, the user must have separate output equipment to accommodate each device. Thus one may utilize a different type of output device to measure pressure as compared to temperature and so on. It is a desire in modern technology to provide a device which is capable of transmitting a wireless signal to remote receiver locations. The ability of utilizing wireless connections is apparent and it is extremely desirable to use wireless connections for monitoring the output of transducer. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 7,283,922 issued on Oct. 16, 2007 entitled Transducer Employing Wireless Transmissions for Sending and Receiving Signals to A. D. Kurtz, et al. In this patent, there is shown a transducer implemented to operate with transmitted frequency signals. These transmitted signals provide a biased potential to the transducer and enable the transducer to transmit a transducer output signal to a remote location. The transducer has an antenna for receiving transmitted signals. The antenna is coupled to a rectifier circuit, the rectifier is operated to provide a DC voltage in response to received transmitted signals. Thus the device is capable of transmitting a wireless signal indicative of the transducer output to a monitoring station. The monitoring station as well as the transducer device utilize a tuned antenna, thus enabling wireless communications between the transducer and the remote location.
The above-noted patent describes the use of a wireless system for a piezoresistive array for measuring pressure. Piezoresistive arrays for pressure measurement are well known and the assignee herein, namely Kulite Semiconductor Products, Inc. supplies many such pressure transducer devices to the industry. In any event, as one will ascertain, it is desirable to utilize a wireless connection having the ability to interface with many transducers of different types and different ranges. Such devices will have, for example, an improved battery life and improved accuracy. Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for retrieving data from a plurality of different transducers using the same wireless interface.